Advanced Riding Skills with Reg Pridmore

 

I know what you're thinking. But I don't need a track day. And you're right, you don't. Instead, you need Reg Pridmore. 

I loved the track day that my husband and I did last September. But as a 'Training' environment, for street specific skills and riding, I didn't feel like it was the best option.

That's why I really want to do Reg Pridmore's Class School. I feel like his homepage says it all:

 

"The friendliest and safest place to learn the riding skills we all need."

"At CLASS, Reg Pridmore focuses on teaching you how to become a smoother safer and more confident rider with instruction on more effective braking, shifting, cornering and how to avoid some pitfalls that often occur as a result of bad habits (even those you might not know you have)."

These two things are what make this kind of class totally different from a track day in my opinion. If you read through the FAQs, you'll see what the format is and how the class is set up.

My husband and I will probably shoot for the October class and by then we hop to have a different car that we can tow our bikes down to. Although, I'm still trying to convince him to ride down but, it's generally safer to drive your vehicle to a track class.. Hmmmm.

Whatever you do to increase your skills, just make sure it's a safe learning environment and not designed to outspeed eachother. There are quite a few different advanced courses out there if this is too far away for you. I've collected a few on my resources page for you.

Women's Gear Success Story!

dainese_airframe_womens_mesh_jacket

Today I had a really great success story with a woman who needed almost an impossible jacket with longer arms, and a very lean body. 

She also had broader shoulders too which made it even more difficult. Another hurdle was the fact that she was rather tall and long waisted (~5'8") with a very lean build; probably a US 0-2 in the body but US 4-6 for shoulders and sleeve/torso length.

So what to do? After trying on many options, she left happily with the above Dainese Air Frame Women's Jacket, perfect for summer riding weather.  Dainese is a fairly slim brand, but not slim enough when you have to size up 2 times to fit your sleeves and shoulders.

What you don't see in the photo are also 2 key button adjustments; one at the bicep and one at the forearm to taper the sleeves even more. The last piece was adding a heavier back protector to take up quite a bit of volume in the body of the jacket.  I chose the Dainese Manis G1 Back Protector. The result was a better fitting jacket and a perfect sleeve length! This means that she can pretty much go with any Dainese ladies jacket in the same size and have a fairly good result with fitment.

Dainese tends to run narrow and long in the sleeves, but when you're caught outside of even this fitment, sometimes a little creativity needs to be employed for an ideal outcome.

Replacement Knee Armor

UPDATE: This Forcefield armor is discontinued. 

The other day I posted about Dainese Knee Armor that I think works well as hip armor. This time around I want to show you some killer knee protectors that you might want to upgrade with asap.

The yellow armor above is made by Forcefield. The "Net Replacement Armor" as it's called is soft, pliable and molded. It also meets the CE Level 2 Standard, which is more than most of the back/shoulder/elbow armor that comes with your gear. I've upgraded the knee armor in my Revit pants to make riding in them more comfortable.I love Forcefield because it's not as vulnerable to cold and it offers Repeat Performance Technology; which means you can use it again even if you crash on it. The Net Armor is also vented and super smushy. It hardens on impact much like a competing technology called d3o. As much as I like d3o, I prefer the shapes that Forcefield has to offer since it molds better to my petite frame.

dainese_newdrake_womens_used 4 (1)

Many of you might have Dainese riding pants, either textiles or leathers. I want to recommend this form of d3o armor from a company called Rukka (Finland). The d3o Air Knee Pads are about the same height as Dainese knee protectors but offer a full length shock absorption which the hard shell Dainese does not. The width is about the same as well.

I've recommended these to many of my customers and highly highly recommend them to upgrade any of your Dainese pants (mens and ladies). Also, these would work really well in dirt / adventure pants that might have really long pockets in the knees. The coverage is longer than the other knee armor options as well!

rukka_replacement_d3o_knee_armor

PS

Of course you can find replacement back protectors, shoulders and hips with d3o and Forcefield as well.

Idea for thin, lightweight hip armor

I prefer having knee AND hip armor in my riding pants, always. Most hip protectors are rather thick and uncomfortable. But Dainese created 2 products that I think work really well as hip protectors.  One of which is clearly designed by Dainese as a Hip Protector (pictured above). They're smaller, about 3in wide by 5in tall and designed to fit specifically into their riding jean models that offer hip protector pockets.

But the other armor they make with the same lightweight, strong material are Dainese Pro Shape Knee Protectors for their riding jeans:

Both of these protectors are CE Certified and are Level 1. I put the knee protectors in my Gear 2's hip armor pockets! They're comfortable, light and I don't even know they're there.  Each pair costs less than $40, definitely a worthy investment.